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Juan Gabriel Vasquezbooks include the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin award winner and national bestseller, The Sound of Things Falling, as well as the award-winning The Informers and The Secret History of Costaguana.

Racing in the Street

The Bruce Springsteen Reader

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Overview

For more than three decades, Bruce Springsteen’s ability to express in words and music the deepest hopes, fears, loves, and sorrows of average Americans has made him a hero to his millions of devoted fans. Racing in the Street is the first comprehensive collection of writings about Springsteen, featuring the most insightful, revealing, famous, and infamous articles, interviews, reviews, and other writings. This nostalgic journey through the career of a rock-’n’-roll legend chronicles every album and each stage of Springsteen’s career. It’s all here—Dave Marsh’s Rolling Stone review of Springsteen’s ten sold-out Bottom Line shows in 1975 in New York City, Jay Cocks’s and Maureen Orth’s dueling Time and Newsweek cover stories, George Will’s gross misinterpretation of Springsteen’s message on his Born in the USA tour, and Will Percy’s 1999 interview for Double Take, plus much, much more.

Table of Contents

Racing in the StreetThe Springsteen Musical Family TreeForeword by Martin ScorceseAcknowledgmentsA Note on SelectionsChronology“Newark by the Sea” by Gene LazoMapsIntroduction

PART ONE: GROWIN’ UPPeter Knobler, with Greg MitchellWho Is Bruce Springsteen and Why Are We Saying All These Wonderful Things About Him? (Crawdaddy!)Paul Williams Lost in the FloodJohn RockwellSpringsteen’s Rock Poetry at Its Best (New York Times)Dave Marsh Bruce Springsteen: A Rock “Star Is Born” (Rolling Stone)Maureen Orth, Janet Huck, and Peter S. GreenbergMaking of a Rock Star (Newsweek)Jay CocksRock’s New Sensation: The Backstreet Phantom of Rock (Time)Lester BangsHot Rod Rumble in the Promised Land (CREEM)Ariel SwartleyThe Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle (from Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island)Dave MarshThunder Road (from Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story)

PART TWO: GLORY DAYSRobert HilburnOut in the Streets (Los Angeles Times)Don McLeeseAbdicating the Rock ‘n’ Roll Pedestal: Bruce Springsteen Gets Down (Chicago Reader)Greil MarcusThe Next President of the United States (New West)George F. WillBruuuuuceT. Coraghessan BoyleGreasy Lake (from Greasy Lake & Other Stories)Bobbie Ann Masonfrom In CountryJames WolcottThe Hagiography of Bruce Springsteen (Vanity Fair)Simon FrithThe Real Thing – Bruce Springsteen (from Music for Pleasure)Kevin Majorfrom Dear Bruce SpringsteenJefferson MorleyDarkness on the Edge of the Shining City: Bruce Springsteen and the End of Reaganism (New Republic)Jack RidlVideo MamaAndrew M. GreeleyThe Catholic Imagination of Bruce SpringsteenRobert SantelliTwenty Years Burning Down the Road: The Complete History of Jersey Shore Rock ‘n’ Roll (from Backstreets: Springsteen – The Man and His Music)Charles R. CrossThe Promise (Backstreets)Dave BarryGlory Days (Miami Herald)Elizabeth Wurtzelfrom Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in AmericaNeil StraussSpringsteen Looks Back But Keeps Walking On (New York Times)Hope EdelmanBruce Springsteen and the Story of Us (Iowa Review)Judy WiederBruce Springsteen: The Advocate Interview (The Advocate)Bryan K. GarmanThe Ghost of History: Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie, and the Hurt Song (Popular Music and Society)Jim CullenTom Joad’s ChildrenThe Bars of Graceland (from Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition)Tom Perrottafrom The WishbonesNicholas DawidoffThe Pop Populist (New York Times Magazine)Mikal GilmoreBruce Springsteen’s America (from Night Beat: A Shadow History of Rock & Roll)R. C. RingerAsbury Park (from Shore Stories: An Anthology of the Jersey Shore)Sheri Tabachnik, Joseph Sapia, and Kelly Jane CotterFather of Bruce Springsteen Dies at 73 (Asbury Park Press)

PART THREE: REBIRTHPellegrino d’AciernoRoll Over, Rossini: Italian American Rock ‘n’ RollAfter the Long Good-bye: From Frank Zappa to Bruce Springsteen and Madonna (from The Italian American Heritage)Will PercyRock and Read: Will Percy Interviews Bruce Springsteen (DoubleTake)Nadine EpsteinAsbury Park, My Hometown (Christian Science Monitor)Frederick Reikenfrom The Lost Legends of New JerseySamuele F. S. PardiniBruce Springsteen’s “American Skin” (Artvoice)Bob Cranefrom A Place to Stand: A Guide to Bruce Springsteen’s Sense of PlaceNick HornbyThunder Road (from Songbook)Colleen SheehySpringsteen: Troubadour of the HighwayAlan LightThe Missing (The New Yorker)A. O. ScottThe Poet Laureate of 9/11: Apocalypse and Salvation on Springsteen’s New Album (Slate)Kevin CoyneHis Hometown (New Jersey Monthly)Eric Altermanfrom It Ain’t No Sin to Be Glad You’re Alive: The Promise of Bruce SpringsteenChristopher PhillipsThe Real World